Posted on February 3rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm by isabelleemerald and
MARTHA COREY’S VOICE: I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is.
HAWTHORE’S VOICE: How do you know, then, that you are not a witch?
-Arthur Miller
A legal system giving people like Martha Corey the label “guilty,” or at least until proven innocent is nonsensical, considering the quandary of attesting that a women is a witch. With a little research, I found evidence to support the irrationality of the legal system in 1692, during the witch trials. People reasoned that if the accused woman could float in the water, she was a witch; if she did not die from drowning, she’d die by hanging as one. If she sank, the woman was innocent of the accusation; but what good is it if she’s dead? Another test entails burning the woman’s hand in a boiling pot, if it did not heal in four days she was a witch. The woman’s failure to heal supposedly signified the Devil’s hand at work and an absence of God’s presence within her. People were pressed as well. The book goes in depth about pressing in the conversation between Elizabeth and John Proctor about Giles Corey’s death. These tests were not only unfounded, but unfair as well. Guiltless women were subjected to needless pain and devastating deaths. Despite the government’s attempt to compensate for the suffering people endured because of the witch trials, no sum of money or pity could undo the physical and emotional damage caused in Salem.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
-Thomas Jefferson
Well, obviously that is one think Salem lacked. Oh and don’t forget, that and sensible reasoning.
Link Here | February 4, 2008,
Hm, you took a subject we all probably thought upon and actually did some research on it to even further expose its absurdity. I enjoyed reading this :]
Lupe
Link Here | February 7, 2008,
The legal system back then was clearly flawed and the ridiculousness of the tests they used find if the person was a witch is crazy. The Crucible really makes you realize how good our current legal system is. It really made me think about legal systems in general a lot more.
I though I’d add this clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail about testing witches, I though it went well with your blog.
jorgecervantes
Link Here | February 7, 2008,
ok the video didn’t work. oh well. you should watch that movie it has a funny scene dealing with witch trials.
jorgecervantes
Link Here | February 8, 2008,
WOW, those Salem people sure were crazy. But it seems right though, it makes it harder for people who are guilty to make themselves innocent than having people who are innocent until proven guilty. Wouldn’t that make it easier for innocent people to die though?
WOW (again.)
Francis
Link Here | February 8, 2008,
Gustavo here.
Your right these “test” were irrational. What good would drowning someone to prove they weren’t a witch do? Nothing really, except kill someone. And does it take a burn only four days to heal? It’s madness really.
Gustavo out.
gustavoferdinand
Link Here | February 8, 2008,
Thats really crazy about how they would drown women in order to prove their innocence from witchcraft. Good quote.
karenjones